HBO Announces 'Confederate,' New Series from 'Game of Thrones' Showrunners

HBO's Game of Thronesseries creators/showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss already have their next project in line once the mega-hit fantasy epic winds down—the two will return to HBO to serve as showrunners for and write Confederate, the premium service announced on Wednesday. Nichelle Tramble Spellman, Malcolm Spellman, Carolyn Strauss and Bernadette Caulfield will also executive produce.

Confederate sounds very provocative, a drama series that takes place in an alternate timeline where America's southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation where slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution. The series will chronicle events leading to the Third American Civil War as it follows a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone – freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families of people in their thrall.

Will the Massacre at Hardhome or the Battle of the Blackwater win this fight?

“We have discussed Confederate for years, originally as a concept for a feature film,” said Benioff and Weiss in an HBO release. “But our experience on Thrones has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO. There won’t be dragons or White Walkers in this series, but we are creating a world, and we couldn’t imagine better partners in world-building than Nichelle and Malcolm, who have impressed us for a long time with their wit, their imagination and their Scrabble-playing skills.”

No word on an air date for Confederate, but HBO says production on the series will begin following the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones (which may be pushed to 2019).